Harry Potter: The Ring Maker

Chapter 497: Friends

Summer break was rapidly approaching and Nick wanted to completely prepare for his binding of the realm before it arrived so he chose to leave the lexicons knowledge on hold until he did. This wasn't to say that Nick didn't take a couple days to relax or often hung out with his friends that were cramming for the up coming exams. "No no , like this." He said while helping Ron with the practical portion of the charms practice. Merely watching someone perform something was not enough for the red head to pick it up so Nick was moving the boys wand hand so he could feel what he needed to do instead.-

Nick had long since figured out that Ron was far from untalented but due to the fact he couldn't learn in the standard way he regularly underperformed. Teaching him in this much more hands on way let the red head improve rapidly. "Is this correct?" Tracy asked as she showed Nick a runic sentence since she was studying for her runes exam. "This part here should be like this actually." Nick said as he tapped on the paper with his finger causing another very similar runic sentence to appear on it with notes and arrows pointing out the differences.-

This was actually one of the greatest gains Nick had gotten from Slytherins library , wandless magic. Towards the end of the library the founder had a few tomes on his experiences in the use of magic without a wand alongside his theories on why it was supposed to be so difficult. Basically wizards who use wands have trained their bodies to that method thus when they start trying to use magic wandlessly it feels unnatural and so they struggle to overcome this hurdle.-

Slytherin also postulated that wandless magic had different rules than magic with a wand so it was inefficient as the wizard forces it with what they knew to work with wands. The final theory was that it depended on the purity of ones magic and the strength of ones soul that determined how easy it was to use the stuff. After attempting wandless casting following the founders method Nick felt rather irritated because it was practically second nature to him. He knew why too as in terms of purity of mana and strength of soul he was monstrously high in both. Even further he had experience in wandless casting due to his elemental bloodline and his Animagus abilities.-

There was still a bit of trouble adapting his skill in magic to a wandless version and of course there was a steep drop in power behind each spell he cast wandlessly due to how inefficient it was but only to about the level of the average Hogwarts graduate which was more than adequate for most things. The only exception to this was when he used transfiguration magic as his supreme talent in the art now made him more dangerous than ever as he only needed a thought to shift his surroundings to his will.-

"Hey just how far ahead of us are you anyways?" Tracy asked after seeing the wandless spell. "Hmm , in pure knowledge a bit under Dumbledore and in terms of skill about the same level as Mcgonagall and Snape. To be fair though I am a bit of a workaholic with too much free time to constantly push my knowledge and skill forward." Nick answered after thinking about it for a moment. "Way to make us feel like baggage." Harry joked and everyone laughed. Nick shrugged "Like I said too much free time." he said in mock helplessness.-

"Still it's hard to believe you are the same age as most of us." Daphne said and everyone nodded in agreement. "I'm just built different i guess." Nick said not really bothered by the difference in ability between him and his friends. After all he didn't become friends with them for their ability to keep up with him but rather because as individuals he can relax around them and just generally vibe with their personalities , after a bit of personal growth on their parts of course.-

Ron is no longer the jealous ignorant idiot he was at the beginning , Hermione is a much more personable person and actually pretty chill most of the time now and even Luna is usually all smiles and generally in a good mood. Daphne and Tracy never really needed personal growth but rather a slight change in situations to really open up. All in all the group just sort of clicked together around Nick as it's center which he was fine with. The best part in his opinion was that in many ways each and every one of his chosen friends was way ahead of the rest of their peers just by the benefits of associating with him on a regular basis.